Tea, Toasties and Trips

 It's not even quite six weeks and I'm posting again! It seems to have been a jam packed few weeks and it is nice to share it with others. I'll start with the "Tea's" with the first being a High Tea with some friends last weekend  as we celebrated 50 years since we started our nursing training. The venue was the historic Mt Lofty House in the Adelaide Hills and it reminded me of the surrounds on some of our UK Morris tours.......

A few days ago I was guest speaker at a cancer fundraising Morning Tea event with the Port Elliot Patchworkers and these girls can certainly do a morning tea with Morris napkins included! 100 attended and it was a great honour to be a part of it all...............

My quilts are always glad to be taken out of the closet for a few hours too.......

The "Toasites" part is possibly because Larry just made me a toastie. The weather has finally turned chilly with the first day of Winter this weekend and boy it's been hard to keep toastie warm! We have had a very long dry spell and had we not received rain a few days ago it would have been the driest Autumn on record for our state......the full story is at this link; Rain finally arrives

Now to the "Trips" and there are a few to share. One weekend recently we made the long drive to Bordertown and back to celebrate our friend Judy's 70th birthday. It was a great thrill to be able to share it with her family and friends and was worth the drive.....for us that was a total of 7 hours driving in a day.......

We had an another trip to the city a few weekends ago as we'd been given tickets to an Adelaide Symphony  Orchestra concert. Our generous friends Lessa and Roger were unable to go and knowing Larry and I both love classical music thought we might enjoy the tickets and it did not disappoint. Our seats in the Adelaide Town Hall were amazing and the sounds spectacular with a guest conductor from Finland and guest pianist from Uzbekistan . The ASO has a diverse program and you can see more here; 2024 ASO Program

We also had a longer "Trip" of our own two weeks ago. We had 8 nights away enjoying a cabin at Cohuna a small town between Swan Hill and Echuca in Victoria. We travelled south (a 5 hour return journey), to catch up with quilting friends), so all up we travelled about 2,000 kms coming home via Renmark......

 These were the views from our cabin and it was very restful.......even Topsy our budgie came with us this time.......

On the road we saw some of the amazing Silo Art Trail and one day we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary having lunch by the river in historic Echuca.......

Our good friends Faye and Kym are currently on a very long "Trip" travelling to Western Australia and they have already shared some amazing photos in the Kimberley and beyond. An amazing experience in the true outback of Australia and they will be away for about 3 months.......

Beau and Maisie and family are on their way back today from their "Trip" to Japan. Before they left I made Maisie a bag and purse to take with her and some zippered pouches for the others with their names appliquéd in Japanese on them but I only got a photo of Maisie's bag. What an incredible experience for them all and extra special as both Beau and Maisie studied Japanese at school. There have been many wonderful photos and we look forward to hearing all about their two weeks away.......

Yesterday I went on a much shorter "Trip" with some quilting friends to Goolwa to see an exhibition at the gallery Artworx. Five local artists have been selected to have their work placed in a NASA time capsule and sent to the moon. You can read more; HERE where it is explained that works are to be digitally miniaturised for the project. It is well worth visiting the exhibition and even more so to see Cheryl Bridgart's spectacular textile pieces up close. We all feel like Cheryl is one of us as we have known her so long and  she is such a kind and humble soul with incredible talent. Her work is all free hand machine embroidered and her distinctive style is in collections all over the world.........

Cheryl was also featured recently on this video so make a cuppa and have a look. It goes for about 23 minutes and is wonderful.......

Under my sewing machine right now is another quilt for palliative care. Both these quilts were pieced by our intrepid group leader Lessa, but with Faye travelling it means she isn't around to quilt them, so here they are on my much smaller machine........

So that is it until next time......take good care wherever you are x

Escaping with needle and thread

 I almost forgot how to write a new blog post this morning so I must try to do it more often. (How many times have I been saying that!). So greetings from sunny South Australia ☺ It was a lovely email that I received today from Claudia in Northern Germany that prompted me to write this....Hi Claudia! The internet certainly allows us to meet others from afar and it is especially wonderful that we can share our love of stitching. I am so very grateful to have a sewing space to escape to and I cannot imagine my life without the solace of stitching. At times I will have a burst of energy and spend days on end creating but then boom, the fatigue hits as I am reminded of living with a ticker that decides to tick erratically from time to time. Seeing as it has been well over four months since I said hello that means there is lots to show........but can I remember how to upload photos??!! First up is a stack of little gifts made for others...prizes for a village dinner that include handy cubes, spectacle case and placemats.....

Some weeks back I was given some furnishing fabric swatch samples that had been donated to a local op shop so I turned them into zippered purses and donated them back to the op shop to sell......

A small group of friends and I  make quilts for others and we were recently donated eight hand appliquéd blocks so I turned them into two quilts to be donated to a palliative care unit........

Another finish of a quilt for a new baby girl and another on the bed from a Morris jelly roll I was given (and thanks to my dear friend Faye for machine quilting it for me)......

I've also been "repurposing" some very old quilts of mine. They are too old to give away and are just languishing in a cupboard. So now they are zippered items to give away at special events.....

It goes without saying that we have had some precious times with the younger people in our lives. We had their company during the Christmas holidays and again just last week for the term one break. Maisie and Wade enjoy each others company and the first image was at Christmas and the other a few days ago......how quickly they grow......

Our local library puts on great free holiday activities that Beau and Maisie enjoyed in January as well as time at the nearby beach.....

Last week Wade and Maisie created a pretend cafe in the nearby playground and produced delicious wraps from paperbark and vegetation....Maisie is so imaginative.......

A stroll through our village (that we really call a small town in South Australia), you can find history recorded on some of the cottage fences.....

Christ Church Yankalilla built in 1857 is a short stroll away and on that link you can read about an image of the Virgin Mary that has become a shrine that people from around the world have come to visit......

During holiday periods the small township of Yankalilla becomes very busy with visitors. We are amazed at the number of caravans and there is always a long line up outside the bakery.....

So that has been a small snap shot of our lives these past few months. Thanks for dropping by and reading this far. I will leave you with my latest skill of finally perfected a victoria sponge! It reminds me of recent a visit I had from a couple of roving reporters from SA Quilters. Cindy and Jane have been visiting sewing rooms for about 3 years now and a few weeks ago they came to see mine. I insisted on a couple of special friends being with me so I baked a sponge for the occasion. Hope you can see the video link! Till next time take care x